Meimei Cheshaneko
General Information ☯'Personality' Meimei is intensely, cripplingly shy, so much so that she almost never shows herself to other people. On the rare occasion that she does, she hides her face behind her hair and turns beet red as soon as anyone so much as looks at her, and she can barely manage to stammer a single word, let alone carry on a conversation. Because of this, she usually chooses to make herself invisible, though even that doesn't cure her shyness completely. Luckily for her, she is also a proficient user of shikigami, which she can and often does use to speak with others in her place - with Mai, her strongest and most intelligent shikigami, being her preferred messenger. Her shikigami are also her closest friends and the only ones she can speak to with anything like normality, though Mai does still love to fluster her with her teasing. Still, despite her aversion to people, Meimei is generally kind, but she is also very curious, which can sometimes cause problems for her and others. Most of the time, though, she satisfies her curiosity through intellectual means, spending her days holed up in her home with her sizable collection of books. ☯'Appearance' Meimei rarely shows herself in front of others, but when she does, she usually looks like a young girl with pale skin, bright green catlike eyes, straight black hair that comes all the way down to her ankles, and the ears and tail of a black cat. However, as a Cheshire bakeneko, she can change her appearance as she pleases, so this is merely the default appearance she uses whenever she is coaxed into showing herself. Most of the time, due to her shyness, she is nothing more than a disembodied voice. She can alter her clothing at will, too, but she has an affinity for frilly, ribbon-covered dresses as well as the color black, so whenever she appears she typically wears something along those lines. In fact, black ribbons have come to be something of a personal symbol for her, often marking her influence in various ways such as adorning different forms she takes or serving as danmaku. ☯'Theme Songs' * Ib - Memory (Regular) * Mario & Luigi Paper Jam - Final Battle (Battle) Backstory Originally an ordinary black cat, Meimei once belonged to a powerful magician who kept her as his sole companion during his magical research. Eventually, whether because of her exposure to his magic, or because of the love he treated her with, she awakened as a youkai, becoming a bakeneko with the ability to alter shapes. When her master discovered this, instead of driving her away, he accepted her and took her on as his apprentice, and over time she came to see him like a father. As the magician's power grew, however, so did the suspicions of other humans - not helped by the rumors that his apprentice was a youkai - and one night, while he slept, a mob attacked his home and burned it down. The magician unfortunately did not wake up in time, but Meimei did, and after escaping, she killed as many of those responsible as she could before fleeing into the wild. She spent several years grieving, but once she recovered, she decided to continue teaching herself magic in memory of her late master. Many centuries later, she came to Gensokyo, where she has lived ever since, gradually gaining a reputation as a powerful and influential, if reclusive, figure. Story ☯'Two-Tailed Curse' () ☯'Heat Wave' () Relationships ☯'Eirin Yagokoro' The two mutually respect one another as being among the most powerful minds in Gensokyo, and Meimei often consults with Eirin whenever she gets stuck in her research. However, their relationship is a purely academic one, though Eirin is much closer friends with Mai. ☯[[Kamei no Yuuko|'Kamei no Yuuko']] The two of them have a close professional relationship, and are something like friends. However, they have never met in person, and they do not usually interact outside of an academic context. Mai, on the other hand, is much closer friends with Yuuko, whom she often visits on behalf of her master. Meimei and Yuuko both regularly swap magical research, and have collaborated on a few small projects. They originally met through Patchouli Knowledge, their mutual friend. ☯'Kosuzu Motoori' Meimei often borrows books from her shop, Suzunaan, usually sending either Miki or Maki to pick up and return books for her. However, the two interact little outside of this. ☯'Patchouli Knowledge' The two of them are friends, being fellow book-lovers, magicians, and shut-ins. Although they have never met in person, they do regularly exchange written correspondence and Meimei often sends her shikigami, usually Mai, to deliver messages or borrow books. The two have also collaborated on several projects in the past, including the rocket Patchouli created during the Second Lunar War. ☯'Yukari Yakumo' Yukari finds Meimei adorable and fun to tease, so she often visits her for that express purpose. Meimei herself has mixed feelings about this, but she does consider Yukari a friend, and the two often exchange correspondence and magical knowledge. Their shikigami are also fairly close to one another, with Mai being friends with Ran and something of an older sister figure to Chen while Momo is an occasional playmate of Chen's. Abilities ☯'Ability to Manipulate Forms' She is capable of manipulating forms, both her own and those of other people and things. With this power she can change the physical shapes and properties of things, which naturally has an enormous number of applications, from creating weapons out of her surroundings to duplicating herself to changing the shapes of her enemies, just to name a few. The most common application she uses this power for, however, is to erase her own body, essentially making herself both invisible and intangible, though she still exists at a specific point at any given time and can still see, hear, and speak. While this ability is powerful, though, it is limited in that it cannot change the innate nature of a thing - that is, it cannot turn a non-living thing into a living one, or vice versa, and it cannot tamper with a body's mind or soul. Similarly, when she duplicates things, all copies share the same mind, soul, and pool of spiritual power, if they had one originally. Also, because it can take some time for a spirit to adjust to its new body, it is possible, if difficult, to return to one's original form during this time if one's will is strong enough; the transformation becomes permanent after about a week, however. This same concept also applies to the kami in inanimate objects, which retain the patterns of their original shapes for some time after being transformed, a fact Meimei can use to revert an object back to its original shape even without knowing every detail. ☯'Magical Skill' Meimei is also a skilled onmyouji and sorceror with the ability to wield many powerful forms of magic, including but not limited to teleportation and elemental magic. Due to her constant study, she can use many of these spells with nothing more than a thought, but some more complicated spells may require greater concentration. ☯'Ability to Command' Shikigami On top of everything else, Meimei also has several shikigami under her command, the most powerful of whom, Mai, is strong enough to stand among Gensokyo's more powerful residents in her own right. Her other notable shikigami include Miki and Maki, a pair of mouse youkai; Momo, a rabbit youkai; Jaba and Waka, a pair of dragons; and Moemi, a bakeneko who helps manage her household. ☯'Grimoire of Forms' This magical tome was created by Meimei as a tool to increase her power. With it, she can offset the drain of maintaining her shikigami, allowing her to wield her abilities at full power even while her shikigami are active. However, its magical power is limited and must be recharged after every use. There are multiple copies of the grimoire, but only one of these is the true grimoire, capable of boosting its user's power. The others are still books of very powerful spells, however. Shikigami ☯'Jaba & Waka' ☯'Mai Majoneko' ☯'Miki & Maki' ☯'Moemi' ☯'Momo' Danmaku Her normal danmaku are black ribbons that explode upon contact. Perhaps a bit uncharacteristically for someone so shy, she tends to be very showy with her danmaku, often using beautiful and intricate patterns that are meant to impress as much as hurt. Just don't actually compliment her on them, as such a thing tends to embarrass her very easily. Spell Cards Note: Since she has so much difficulty with talking to people, she usually announces her spell cards via illusionary writing rather than through speech. ☯'Spell Cards' Residence Meimei's residence is located in the Forest of Magic, on the furthest edge from the Human Village. Its entrance is located in a certain tree that, at first glance, appears completely ordinary, but if the right spot is touched by the right person, a hidden doorway opens up that leads to an extensive array of hallways and rooms comparable to the interior of a mansion. Unlike most mansions, however, the interior of Meimei's residence is non-Euclidean and constantly warps and shifts according to her whims, though it does have some more or less static features, such as the library where she spends the majority of her time and the rooms where each of her shikigami live. Don't expect to find these in the same place twice, though. Besides Meimei and her shikigami, the residence is also populated by her hundreds of pet cats, which she keeps and breeds as a hobby. Trivia * While she can use her ability to create edible food, she is not very good at replicating the exact tastes of things, so any food she makes is usually either very bland or very off-tasting. It doesn't help that she's also a terrible cook. Category:Characters Category:Females